17 JANUARY 2017

A series of workshops on Health Promoting Schools started at the PHRC (PHOTO)

The Public Health and Reforms Center (PHRC) of Ministry of Health with the technical support of the  World Health Organization (WHO) Country Office in Azerbaijan organized a two-day seminar on the topic of "Health Promoting Schools". The event was held on January 16-17,  2017  in PHRC.  Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, State Committee for Family, Women and Children’s Affairs of Republic of Azerbaijan, WHO,  UNFPA, UNİCEF, Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society, and representatives of local non-governmental organizations participated in the event.

The main goal of the two-day seminar with the participation of experts from the WHO Regional Office for Europe was to define the national policy on school health  promotion and path forward for Azerbaijan. At the workshop the Schools for Health in Europe (SHE) network experience was introduced to participants. The SHE network focuses on making school health promotion an integral part of policy development in the health and education sector in EU member states. The SHE network encourages each member country to develop and implement a national policy on school health promotion, building on the experiences within the country, within Europe and global.  SHE aims to support organizations and professionals to further develop and sustain school health promotion in each country by providing the European platform for school health promotion. SHE is a network of national coordinators from 45 countries in the European Region.

During the two-day event, representatives of PHRC gave presentations about health promotion in schools and situation with child health at schools. Also, Programme Manager on Child, and Adolescent Health at WHO Regional Office for Europe Dr Martin Weber and the President of the SHE network Mr Goof Buijs informed participants about WHO relevant recommendations and shared the SHE network experience.

At the end of the event, recommendations on improving a health promotion approach at local schools were suggested by the participants.

The workshop is to be followed by a WHO seminar on conducting the Health Behavior of school-aged children (HBSC) study in Azerbaijan. 

You can see the photos from the event here. 

The full text is available in the Azerbaijani language.